Wollongong to Cann River
500km today, starting with the amazing Macquarie Pass this morning, I didn't know it existed - such a beautiful surprise. Then out home to Queanbeyan to water the plants and lube the chain on the bike, then back out onto some long Australiana roads along the Monaro Highway all the way down to the south coast (didn't see one Monaro, however I did pass "The big potato" and met a guy with a 1.7 litre Harley Dragster - madness, great bloke, lent him an allen key).
Rode through Coopracambra national park - beautiful ride through a gorgeous wooded forest before finishing up in a traditional pub hotel room for $45... nice. Very isolated here, fits well a mood I've been feeling since I've been thinking about relationships lately, was musing that just like riding a bike, you have to be able to trust in order to make a journey together - that without trust, you don't journey anywhere. That there are different roles between the rider and the motorbike, but the rider has to be able to trust the motorbike and if the bike were conscious it would have to be able to trust the rider. Both are fallible and performing below what is expected by either the rider or the bike will result in damaging the journey and both partners. But a relationship with a rider and a bike results in a journey that is so much more than what they could experience as individuals. All relationships are like that, you have to be able to trust to make great things happen together.
As I'm typing, the town has well and truly shut down for the night. I think I am the only person in this pub hotel. The silence between the birdcalls is amazing, the isolation unreal. Melbourne tomorrow, 450km.
Tomorrow's ride